Suspicious WindowsTerminal Child Processes

SIGMA detection rule by Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) · NOASSERTION

Detects suspicious children spawned via the Windows Terminal application which could be a sign of persistence via WindowsTerminal (see references section)

title: Suspicious WindowsTerminal Child Processes
id: 8de89e52-f6e1-4b5b-afd1-41ecfa300d48
status: test
description: Detects suspicious children spawned via the Windows Terminal application which could be a sign of persistence via WindowsTerminal (see references section)
references:
    - https://persistence-info.github.io/Data/windowsterminalprofile.html
    - https://twitter.com/nas_bench/status/1550836225652686848
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-07-25
modified: 2023-02-14
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.persistence
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_parent:
        ParentImage|endswith:
            - '\WindowsTerminal.exe'
            - '\wt.exe'
    selection_susp:
        - Image|endswith:
              # Add more LOLBINS
              - '\rundll32.exe'
              - '\regsvr32.exe'
              - '\certutil.exe'
              - '\cscript.exe'
              - '\wscript.exe'
              - '\csc.exe'
        - Image|contains:
              # Add more suspicious paths
              - 'C:\Users\Public\'
              - '\Downloads\'
              - '\Desktop\'
              - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
              - '\Windows\TEMP\'
        - CommandLine|contains:
              # Add more suspicious commandline
              - ' iex '
              - ' icm'
              - 'Invoke-'
              - 'Import-Module '
              - 'ipmo '
              - 'DownloadString('
              - ' /c '
              - ' /k '
              - ' /r '
    filter_builtin_visual_studio_shell:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'Import-Module'
            - 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.DevShell.dll'
            - 'Enter-VsDevShell'
    filter_open_settings:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - '\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_'
            - '\LocalState\settings.json'
    filter_vsdevcmd:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\'
            - '\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat'
    condition: all of selection_* and not 1 of filter_*
falsepositives:
    - Other legitimate "Windows Terminal" profiles
level: medium

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a27dbad1-e4c1-41f5-a56c-3eb44df431d6

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Executable code, not a declarative rule

This submission is arbitrary [[ currentRule.format ? currentRule.format.toUpperCase() : '' ]] code, not a declarative detection rule — review it as you would any script before running it, and note that it cannot be safely aggregated or auto-executed alongside YARA/Sigma/Suricata/CRS rules.

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